I'm certain it is market forces. The question is what is influencing the supply side in order to manipulate those market forces.
Example. California recently raised the minimum size of chicken cages that farms must use for their hens. The farmers thus need to recover a substantial investment on a simultaneously smaller number of birds. And farms that couldn't make the investment just folded. So now you have a dramatic shortage of eggs that was entirely self inflicted because of (intentionally) poor planning.
I don't think any of this food inflation is direct market manipulation. It is reduced supply, masked as typical government incompetence, with the intention being done to make you eat the factory processed bug meat product.
I'm certain it is market forces. The question is what is influencing the supply side in order to manipulate those market forces.
Example. California recently raised the minimum size of chicken cages that farms must use for their hens. The farmers thus need to recover a substantial investment on a simultaneously smaller number of birds. And farms that couldn't make the investment just folded. So now you have a dramatic shortage of eggs that was entirely self inflicted because of (intentionally) poor planning.
I don't think any of this food inflation is direct market manipulation. It is reduced supply, masked as typical government incompetence, with the intention being done to make you eat the factory processed bug meat product.